Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

Well, he has talked about his evil experiences at universities, and I look forward to him explaining exactly what they were. We have seen a pattern emerge right through the Liberal Party frontbench of being scarred while at university and taking out their frustrations when in government. We are seeing the continuation of that pattern right now.

We understand that the Liberal Party experimented with many things. We understand that they experimented in their youth with various drugs of addiction. We know their gambling addiction is part of it. Of course their greatest drug of addiction has been the AWA. They are obsessed with trying to control working people’s lives. They are obsessed with ensuring that the government intervenes in the workplace in such a way as to limit the capacity of reasonable people to enter into negotiations about their working conditions. They are unable to actually show some basic respect for people’s capacity to organise their own lives.

What we have seen here is just how out of touch the opposition remain. They are out of touch with working Australians. They are simply locked into the past. They have lost their way and have no way of finding a way forward that gets them past their obsessions. Australians made it perfectly clear on 24 November last year that their choices did not involve Work Choices. The coalition failed to hear that message. They failed to understand that wages and conditions should not be wound back by draconian measures that saw our academic institutions, our universities, treated as wayward children, to be corrected by the know-alls on the other side who had bad experiences when they were young boys.

What we have is a situation where the next generation of Australian workers know that they are entitled to do better than the previous generation. They are entitled to have job security. They are entitled to enjoy better conditions than their parents received. They are entitled to opportunities that allow them to negotiate the future for themselves. This is a message that the Australian people have understood and directed to this parliament, but it is not a message that the coalition benches have heard. They simply do not understand that the Australian people do not want the continuation of Work Choices.

The interim leader of the coalition, Dr Nelson, acknowledges that it was a big mistake to try and reinstate the 19th century law of master and servant in the 21st century. He says he will not repeat the mistake. What is Senator Mason doing in here today?